Page 13 - Gateways for Early Educators

Gateways for Early Educators
helping to make lasting quality improvement. Coaching procedures included conducting initial site visits to observe and gather information, conducting intake and assessments, offering individualized support and technical assistance, and helping participants to define realistic and attainable quality improvement plans. Coaches encouraged some participants to develop personalized educational goals for advancement in the child care field and to navigate entry to the higher education system.
Program Participants and Activities
Program Participants
An extensive body of research has consistently shown that the quality of early childhood programs is largely determined by the education and training of the providers.i ii iii As such, the Gateways program was designed to support early childhood educators in overcoming the tremendous barriers they often face in building their education and careers. Gateways meets the needs of the highly diverse ECE workforce by offering a range of entry points for training and coaching services that are linguistically and culturally appropriate and are accessible to early childhood educators in local communities across Los Angeles County.
The criteria for defining a “core member or participant” were consistent across all R&R agencies. Core members of the Gateways for Early Educators program included early childhood educators (those serving children 0-5 years) in the coaching component. For the quality and career coaching components, priority was given to certain participants and was used during recruitment, including:
Priority 1: LACOCC QRIS participants.
Priority 2: Licensed Family Child Care and Center-based staff who have shown commitment to their professional growth in the past including those earning 20+ hours of Passport Certificate training at the R&R agencies, those enrolled in ASPIRE1, etc.
Priority 3: License-exempt providers committed to improving their quality of care and are participating in R&R services (recruited from those already actively participating in other R&R quality improvement programs).
The program’s target was to coach 850 ECE professionals during the 2015-2016 Program Year (PY). Although not provided with a training target because the funding was focused on coaching, it was anticipated that over 3,000 ECE professionals would participate in training provided through the Gateways for Early Educators Program.
1 ASPIRE is a statewide professional development program for early childhood educators funded by First 5 California and is known as CARES Plus outside of Los Angeles. Participants can earn a stipend for completing an on-line training on the CLASS observation tool, academic and career advisement, and 3-6 semester units of coursework.
2016
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